Human hair becomes soiled due to its contact with the surrounding environment and from the sebum secreted by the scalp. The soiling of hair causes it to have a dirty feel and an unattractive appearance. The soiling of the hair necessitates shampooing with frequent regularity.
Shampooing cleans the hair by removing excess soil and sebum. However, shampooing can leave the hair in a wet, tangled, and generally unmanageable state. Once the hair dries, it is often left in a dry, rough, lusterless, or frizzy condition due to removal of the hairs natural oils and other natural hair conditioning and moisturizing components. The hair can further be left with increased levels of static upon drying, which can interfere with combing and result in a condition commonly referred to as “fly-away hair”, or contribute to an undesirable phenomena of “split ends”, particularly for long hair.
A variety of approaches have been developed to alleviate these after-shampoo problems. These approaches range from post-shampoo application of hair conditioners such as leave-on and rinse-off products, to hair conditioning shampoos which attempt to both clean and condition the hair from a single product.
Although some consumers prefer the ease and convenience of a shampoo which includes conditioners, a substantial proportion of consumers prefer the more conventional conditioner formulations which are applied to the hair as a separate step from shampooing, usually subsequent to shampooing. The conditioning formulations thus applied to the hair would then typically be rinsed off from the hair, and the hair would be left to dry.
In order to meet the needs of consumers living in locations where water supply is unstable and thereby desiring conditioning benefit to the hair without using water excess to the amount that would be used for shampooing the hair, a concentrated hair conditioning composition and its method of use was proposed in co-pending PCT application PCT/US00/24973. Such concentrated hair conditioning composition is used by (a) applying a shampoo composition comprising a detersive surfactant to the hair; (b) providing a treated water made by dispersing the concentrated hair conditioning composition to water in, for example, a basin and/or scoop; and (c) rinsing the hair with the treated water; wherein steps (a) and (b) may be reversed. In view of such method of use, good dispersing properties upon contact with water is desired for concentrated hair conditioning compositions. Further, in that consumers tend to associate good dispersing properties by the transparent appearance of the obtained treated water, a concentrated hair conditioning composition having a transparent appearance by itself and are capable of providing transparent treated water is desired. Still further, consumers do not wish to compromise on conditioning performance for such transparent appearance.
Based on the foregoing, there remains a desire to provide concentrated hair conditioning compositions which have a transparent appearance by itself and are capable of providing transparent treated water. There is also a desire to provide such conditioning compositions which disperse easily upon contact with water, yet provide hair conditioning benefits such as smooth feel when the hair is wet, combing ease when the hair is wet or dry, and softness when the hair is dry.
None of the existing art provides all of the advantages and benefits of the present invention.